Nominative Determinism: Yes, That’s His Real Name

Nominative determinism is the theory that a person’s name has some influence over what they do with their life. Keep that in mind as you read this story. A young red-tailed hawk fell out of a nest that was being monitored by a webcam in Portland. A police officer was able to put the bird in a box and take it to the Audubon Society. His name? Officer McCageor “Cage” Byrd. This is not quite an example of nominative determinism, but it’s the perfect name for this particular story. Now, if Cage Bird were to become an ornithologist or a pet shop owner, that would be nominative determinism. Other terms for the same phenomenon are aptonyms or aptronyms, although those words do not necessarily connote a career path. Meet a whole bunch of folks whose names describe what they do, in an article I wrote for mental_floss.

Pictured is meteorologist Amy Freeze.